Monday, August 24, 2009

Wikipedia calls Stanley Brakhage "one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film." He produced his first film at the age of 19, after dropping out of Dartmouth but before he moved to San Francisco to attend San Francisco School of the Arts.

He met a couple of poets who became his friends—Robert Duncan and Kenneth Rexroth—but ultimately moved back East after a couple of unfilling years to focus on his art. Brakhage moved to New York City and took an apartment with Maya Deren. Among the people he met while living in this apartment was Jonas Mekas, who edited a film magazine and would go on to be an important filmmaker and lecturer in his own right. Mekas championed Brakhage's work, Brakhage's support picked up steam through the 60s, by the 70s he was trying out novel kinds of film for companies like Polaroid, and—in 1981—he became a teacher at the University of Boulder.

The University of Colorado at Boulder is near South High School, where—in 1951, when he had Mr. Keables for an English teacher—"Stan Brakhage" wrote a story that we rediscovered in our archive the other day. It turns out a high school student destined to become one of the most influential avant-garde filmmakers in American history was also an excellent writer.